I think that they are because while the Stack Overflow sister sites have their own meta sites they are non-English and the Stack Exchange Inc. official language is English. Most of the The developers involved in fixing bugs only speak English.

I'm asking the above because today a high rep MSE user is removing the above tags from several questions. I reverted the change on one of my questions. I left a comment asking why they were removing some of the tags but not the others but I didn't get a reply, but they continue removing the above tags.

@Glorfindel The workings of non-English sites are changing. As I understood Feedback And Initiatives On International Sites everything that we want to communicate to the company eventually should be posted here. In the specific case of bug reports they should be posted twice, let say post it on Stack Overflow en español to share with the community that a bug was found and post it here to inform the company the same.
– RubénSep 25 '18 at 16:07

5

@Glorfindel more interesting, why kiamlaluno is removing this tags? He has removed this tag on, at least, 7 questions with russian-stackoverflow.
– SuvitrufSep 25 '18 at 16:18

@Rubén bug reports on per-site metas are also monitored, there should be no exception for Stack Overflow sites. (What if I only speak Russian and want to report a bug?)
– GlorfindelSep 25 '18 at 17:25

@Glorfindel As you already said, use Google Translate or ask for a translation.
– RubénSep 25 '18 at 17:27

@Glorfindel in relation to the initiative to have a process that allows cross-cutting concerns to be shared among the international sites they kind of need tags to indicate where their reports were at least spotted. I don't see much harm in those tags, specially if they help the international communities to have a better view on their shared bugs. I also vented a bit in chat about this, starting here.
– reneSep 25 '18 at 17:29

@rene "cross-cutting concerns": yes, those can (should?) be in English, but that's exactly when you should not use e.g. [russian-stack-overflow] since it's not limited to Stack Overflow на русском.
– GlorfindelSep 25 '18 at 17:35

1

@Glorfindel where in this question is suggested that a different language is involved?
– reneSep 25 '18 at 17:39

See my answer below for when it's logical to involve another language.
– GlorfindelSep 25 '18 at 17:46

2 Answers
2

Localization is a tricky business and by its nature involves multiple sites. That fact alone makes such post on topic on this very site. To understand how a feature, bug or discussion pans out across the different localized sites it is important to know where the post originated from and/or with which localized site in mind the post was written.

It is extremely convenient when *-stackoverflow ( or *-stack-overflow) exist so it attracts the right crowd and allows the emerging process to better engage with the international communities to become viable.

Just leave the tags there, but don't go mass re-tag back into history. New posts can benefit from those tags.

Tim Post, a (well-respected) Stack Overflow employee, is now rolling back the tag removal. This alone is a good indication that the tags have their purpose here, for example for posting bug reports (though I have had success with posting it in English and asking for a translation or using Google Translate). For users speaking only English, this is by far the easiest option; you need to be familiar with the layout of Stack Exchange sites (or using Google Chrome) to even post said bug report on the per-site Meta.

Note that if you want to have a discussion about a single non-English site, even in English, it's at the very least fair to make sure it's translated into the 'target' language as well (either here, or on the per-site Meta). Otherwise, users from that site who don't speak English cannot participate, and they have at least as much right to participate as you do. Therefore, it's (IMHO) better to post such a question on the per-site Meta.

Minor nitpick: since "Stack Overflow" is two words, the tags should be renamed to e.g. russian-stack-overflow.

Thanks for the heads up regarding Tim Post is doing edit reversals. Regarding the other comments, Are you saying that in order to make that tags legitimate they should be only about bugs and in such cases that posts should be posted in English and the tag's corresponding language?
– RubénSep 25 '18 at 17:46

Bugs, especially short-lived ones, are OK to have only in English (and tagged *-stack-overflow). Discussion about a single *-stack-overflow site can (IMHO) be held (partially) here, but need to be in two languages. However, I myself would post such a question on the site's own Meta.
– GlorfindelSep 25 '18 at 17:48

I think that it will depend on the topic to be discussed and the people being addressed. Let say that I want to give feedback about something related to the responsive design that I found on spanish-stackoverflow. AFAIK the people I should address the feedback speak English, not Spanish, so posting that feedback in English only looks to be good enough.
– RubénSep 25 '18 at 18:16

If it's about the responsive design, it's highly likely that it involves all sites (so it's fine to post it in English).
– GlorfindelSep 25 '18 at 18:19